Amid massive security, Egypt's Christians gripe peacefully

Hundreds of followers of Egyptian Christians protesting a New Year's bombing that killed nearly two dozen of their members marched Tuesday night on a church in a Cairo suburb, where they were met by an equivalent number of security officers in riot gear.

For the first night since the car bomb, which detonated in face of a Coptic church in Alexandria, there were no reports of aggression during the protests.

Christians and Muslim group in the Shubra neighborhood of Cairo shouted their outrage over the Alexandria attack on Coptic Christians.

"With my blood and my soul I will defend the cross," chanted crowds of protesters, as they wended their way downward Shubra Street toward a church. Some carried crosses -- up to 4 feet (1.22 meters) long -- inscribed with messages of protest written in red ink to stand for blood. Some protesters lay downward on the street, prostrating themselves in the shape of a cross.